Animal Planet on hunt for Bigfoot, Fouke Monster
Do you believe in Bigfoot? You know you want to. Wouldn’t it be just the coolest thing if Sasquatch was found roaming the back woods or swamps in some lost corner of the world?
It would make 1987’s Harry and the Hendersons seem like a film of monumental prescience.
It would also elevate the cheesy 1972 docudrama The Legend of Boggy Creek from cult film status to something approaching cinematic genius.
Sasquatch sightings have been reported in every state except Hawaii, and Bigfoot-like critters persist in cultures around the globe.
Is Bigfoot real? A recent survey for Animal Planet by Wakefield Research found 52 percent of Americans believe that Bigfoot “definitely or possibly” exists.
Surveys are fascinating. A 2012 poll by National Geographic revealed that 36 percent of Americans (about 80 million people) believe UFOs exist and almost half said they couldn’t be sure. A full 10 percent believe they’ve spotted one. Ten percent may have not actually claimed to have spotted Bigfoot, but there are a reported 16 new sightings in the United States each week, and that’s enough to keep the crew from Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot pumped up.
That so many believe in the possibility of Sasquatch comes as no surprise to the intrepid team, which returns to the woods and bayous in search of the elusive critter with new episodes beginning at 9 p.m. today.
The new season will take the team from Fouke in southwest Arkansas in search of the Fouke Monster to the barren reaches of Nepal and China looking for the Abominable Snowman.
For the past three seasons, Finding Bigfoot’s investigators have visited 33 states and five countries and sifted through hundreds of pieces of evidence in hopes of proving the existence of Sasquatch.
There will be 16 episodes between now and March in what’s billed as adventures “going back to the scenes of some of the most promising excursions from past seasons and into new squatchy locations across North America.”
Bigfoot Field Research Organization president Matt Moneymaker is once again joined by researchers James “Bobo” Fay and Cliff Barackman, and skeptical scientist Ranae Holland. The four will discover new and compelling evidence that leads to a global excursion into China and Nepal to search for Bigfoot’s distant cousins — the Chinese yeren and the yeti, better known as the Abominable Snowman.
Animal Planet notes, “Working closely with foreign governments and local guides, the team puts its signature and unconventional Bigfoot strategies to the test in unfamiliar territories, hoping to uncover the mysteries of these bi-pedal, hair-covered beasts that have captivated these countries and the world for decades.”
But of more interest here in Arkansas, tonight’s episode finds the team making a special trip to the Miller County town of Fouke, setting for The Legend of Boggy Creek.
More than 40 years after the film debuted and scared little kids at drive-in movies, reports of the Fouke Monster still abound.
The team meets with locals who claim to have seen the critter or seen evidence of it. There’s even a high school student who called his teacher when he found a huge footprint while checking his traps. There’s a plaster cast that intrigues the team.
Working with a local expert, the gang takes to the swamps and backwaters of the Sulphur River in hopes of catching a glimpse of the monster and prove that Boggy Creek was more reality that legend.
There’s lots of the usual night vision film footage and some thermal imaging. There are mysterious noises in the woods and then suddenly …
Well, I’ve seen the episode and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that those 52 percent who believe or might believe might just want to take a trip to Fouke to follow up.
This season the team follows up on previous promising leads in Florida, Texas and Alabama, and uses an all-new technique of rigging riverboats with thermal cameras for a journey down the Mississippi River.
To cap it all off, the Bigfoot team will divide for a special episode and compete to find the most Sasquatch evidence and to determine once and for all which state is the squatchiest: Oregon or Washington.
Meanwhile, if you want to have some fun while you wait, Animal Planet has hidden a live “Bigfoot Cam” “in an undisclosed location in North America that is rife with squatchy activity.”
Check it out at AnimalPlanet.com/FindingBigfoot.
I’ve stared at it for a half hour and didn’t see anything rife except trees, the edge of a meadow and a distant hillside. However, Animal Planet says the camera “allows viewers to monitor the woods 24/7 for any signs of Bigfoot shenanigans.” Maybe I need to stare at it for a few more hours.